I barely managed a step before my legs gave out.The fight's weight crashed on me all at once—my arms heavy, chest burning, blood dripping into my vision. My body screamed for rest. For once, I thought I could allow it. Just sink to the ground. Let the stone cradle me for a while.
The Beacon pulsed weakly in my hand. Alive. Still mine. I wanted to laugh, to drop it beside me and shut my eyes. Just a minute of peace.
But peace was too much to ask.
The air tore apart above me.
Light split the chamber, searing white and gold, flooding every shadow that dared linger. The stone trembled. The Beacon blazed bright, hotter than before, and then—
I wasn't in the temple anymore.
I staggered forward and caught myself, but there was no ground. No walls. No ceiling. Just light stretching forever, as if the sky itself had swallowed me whole. My boots scuffed nothing, yet held me.
And in that endless glare, a presence pressed against me from every direction. Heavy. Beautiful. Terrible.
"You dare stand before Me, mortal."
Her voice didn't echo. It thundered straight through my skull, through my chest, crawling under my skin. I clenched my teeth, fighting the instinct to kneel, to bow. My legs wanted to, but I locked them stiff.
Meridia's form shimmered into shape ahead of me. A figure too vast, too blinding to look at directly, cloaked in sunfire. Her edges were sharp, defined, yet ever-shifting, like a statue made of pure dawn.
The Beacon in my hand pulsed harder, straining like it wanted to leap from me back to her. But it didn't.
Her gaze fell on me. Cold. Piercing. Angry.
"You took My relic. You dared to wield it as a weapon. To hurl it like some crude tool. To defile its purpose with your recklessness." Her voice cut deep, every word sharp enough to bleed me. "You mocked My command. You spat on My gift. You, who I named as nothing more than pawn."
I wiped the blood at the corner of my mouth with my thumb, smearing it across my chin. My laugh came ragged. Bitter. "Funny. Didn't feel like it was yours when I threw it. Felt like it was mine."
The light around her flared hotter. "INSOLENT!"
The weight of her fury slammed down on me like a mountain. My knees almost buckled. Almost. I forced them to hold. My chest trembled, my lungs straining against her pressure.
But I didn't bow.
Not now. Not after everything.
"Yeah, I used your shiny rock," I said, voice hoarse but steady. "Because you wouldn't shut up. Because I was dying. Because you wanted me to keep fighting, to break myself for your will. So I did it my way."
Her silence lingered, long and terrible. Then—
"You… succeeded."
The word dripped from her tongue like venom, as though saying it poisoned her.
"You cleansed My temple. Destroyed the filth that desecrated it. Restored what was Mine." Her tone cracked, her fury still there, burning hot, but caged behind her Daedric composure. "Yet you defiled My relic to do so. Reckless. Crude. Unworthy."
Her light pressed closer, wrapping around me like fire that didn't burn. "You are an insolent mortal. Reckless beyond reason. Defiant even at the edge of death. And yet—"
Her gaze lingered. I felt it, even though she had no eyes. "The Beacon remains with you. Even now. It does not return to Me. It clings. It chooses."
The words tasted like acid for her.
I lifted the Beacon faintly, its glow pulsing against my bloodied fingers. "Guess it likes me better."
Her fury seared hotter—then shifted. Not gone. Not calmed. Something else. Something like… restrained.
"Hmph." The sound was sharp, disgusted, dripping with indignation. "Do not mistake this… anomaly… as proof of your worth. You are not My champion. You are not chosen. You are tolerated."
A Daedric tsundere, hiding her rage under cold fire.
"But know this, mortal," she continued, her voice cutting sharp as glass. "So long as you hold My Beacon, you are bound to My gaze. I will not suffer you to squander it. You will fight when I command it. You will cleanse when I demand it. And when the moment comes—" her presence flared brighter, swallowing every thought, every breath "—you will prove whether you burn… or break."
The light surged forward, searing everything white.
I grit my teeth, clutching the Beacon tight, refusing to bow even as her fury tried to crush me into nothing.
And then—darkness.
The temple's ruined air filled my lungs again. I collapsed to the stone, Beacon clutched against my chest, my body finally breaking under exhaustion.
Her voice still echoed faint in my head, heavy as ever. "Tolerated…"
I laughed once, breathless, and let the dark take me.